My mistake...

So in my post about the chocolate souffle recipe, I bashed on the suggested cooking time written in the book, saying it was wrong.  Nope... I was wrong.  My assumption was based on the number of containers I used, not the batch size from the recipe.  I made my mixture according to the ingredient list, which yields one batch (they say either one large souffle, or you can divide it into different ramekins).  I opted to divide it in 4.  Then the recipe says to bake it for 15 to 25 minutes per souffle.  This translates into "one batch."  If I doubled the recipe, then I could have cooked it for 50 minutes.  But I didn't.  No wonder they came out drier than those we serve at the restaurant.  Oh well, live and learn.  Just means I'll have to make them again.  I'm thinking peanut butter next time, since Buck doesn't like chocolate, and I feel bad that he didn't get to try one from my last batch.  So the lesson here, pretty much just think things through, and cooking time per *item* is usually according to the serving size in the recipe.  Ok, time for class.

Happiness begins in the kitchen.  Be bold!

Cheers,

-Peter

Part Deux: Back with a vengeance... Weekend Recipe(s) - 4/12/09 (and 4/13/09)

Ok. Back from work, and writing up my second recipe for the weekend. With this one, I should be back on track with one per weekend. This, like I said in my last posting, is one of my own recipes. I used the quickbread recipe as a base, with a little modification. Then I added a pretty basic glaze, and made it my own. I call it the Lemon-Honey Top Quickbread:

Lemon-Honey Top Quickbread
Makes: 1 large pan-sized flatbread
Time: 5-15 minutes prep, up to 40 minutes baking

This recipe would make a good morning pastry. It's not too sweet, and plenty filling

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup warm milk
.33 cup neutral oil (vegetable/grapeseed/canola)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Topping:
3 parts lemon juice
2 parts honey
1-2 parts granulated sugar

Preheat the oven to 375*F. Mix dry bread ingredients in a non-reactive mixing bowl. Pour in the oil and mix. Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the warm milk. Mix well (adding flour if necessary) to form a non-sticky but still elastic dough. Lightly grease a 9x13 standard baking sheet and press dough into rectangle. Allow shrinkage, flip the dough over and repress. Heat the honey and lemon juice in a microwave safe container until it is no longer viscous. Stir in sugar until it is dissolved. Heat once more in the microwave to return to a non viscous state. Using a basting brush, spread a layer of the topping on the dough. Bake the dough for 40 minutes, rebasting every 7 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven, cut into squares and serve. May be served hot, warm, or chilled.

Here is the result I got. It's a very dense biscuit-like pastry that's not at all too sweet (you know how some of those "breakfast" things can be like desserts). When it first comes out of the oven, the crust is still soft in the middle, but the bottom is stiff enough for each square to be able to take some sort of additional spread (maybe some cottage cheese, or a fruit flavored cream cheese, or even just plain cream cheese). Once chilled, the crust becomes more compact and flakey, but still extremely tasty. Here are some of the pictures I took after baking this:

This is trying to show how the glaze pools near the edge where the crust dips a little bit. If you choose to roll out the dough with a pin, then the glaze should spread evenly, but you won't get these tasty little wells of goodness.

Here's a picture that I think really shows the beautiful coloring that this dish takes on. The crust gets a really nice golden brown coloring, and the glaze tints it with yellow. You can see in the piece near the bottom that there can be some discoloration due to the sugar, but I think that was because my oven wasn't heated uniformly.

In all, it's just an awesome dish. The color of it is nice, the taste is great for breakfast (or anytime really), the texture is complementary of the taste, and the ease with which you can make this dish makes it accessible to just about everyone. I think this could also be a gread base recipe to build on.

Anyway, so there are the recipes. It took me three days to get through those two posts. That's what I get for starting them pretty much immediately after getting home from a 7 hour shift running food (at 12am or thereabouts no less). It's interesting though; I have absolutely no idea how large my readership is. I know of a few people (my parents for instance, Hi Mom and Dad!), but even then, I'm not sure how often they check it, and I certainly don't know anyone who has tried one of my recipes. I hope someone has at least been inspired to cook more, because everything is better when it's homemade. Well... unless you absolutely have no idea what you're doing and screw it up (that just reminds me of the first time my brothers and I made an omlet at home; we mistook teaspoon for tablespoon in regards to the salt content, and since we were tripling the recipe, we put in 3 tablespoons of it...). Regardless, you will never learn unless you make mistakes. A lot can happen when you say "Hey, so that doesn't work. What can we do instead?" The possibilities are endless. Some side notes:

1) Flippin hilarious how you can hear the cans of beer being opened during Linecook415's podcasts. I think that's funnier than the toilet flushes myself. Next podcast, I'm going to keep a tally.

2) Work is awesome. Plain and simple, it's exciting and super awesome for someone like me who loves food. I just can't wait to get into the kitchen part of it.

3) In addition to the blog, I'm thinking of starting a website geared towards students who appreciate good food in Los Angeles (and whichever city I end up in after college) as well as aspiring chefs and foodies in general. I'm thinking forums, restaurant reviews (both myself in my free time, and from newspapers and such), recipes, basic technique lessons, and interviews with chefs, servers, managers, and owners if I can swing it.

4) I still lament that USC has no cooking classes. We have at least three types of dance classes, lots of PE classes, and countless other Fine Arts classes. So adding to the "list" (you know, the list of stuff to do before you die), "Start an School of Culinary Arts and Restaurant and Hotel Industry at USC." All it takes is some rich donar to agree to put their name on a building. To see what else is on my list, you'll have to ask me yourself.

5) If you are a reader, please respond with your thoughts. I'm interested in knowing what people think about things. Even if you just say, "I like puppies," I'd be completely down for doing a post on the variety of recipes one can use puppies and other domestic animals in... A joke, people. Maybe in bad taste, but that was a joke...

Anyway, I think I've found my "signing off" phrase. Inspired of course from Linecook's podcast, but not nearly as clever (or vulgar).

Happiness begins in the kitchen. Be bold!

Cheers,

-Peter

Back with a vengeance... "Weekend" Recipe(s) - 4/11/09 (and 4/12/09)

So I have two recipes for you, which I will compliment with the stories behind each. The first one comes (of course) from what is becoming my Bible, How to Cook Everything. And it is (dramatic music swell with drumroll) Chocolate Souffle!!! Huzzah! ...O_O... But really, here it is:

Vanilla or Chocolate Souffle
Makes: 4 to 6 servings
Time: About 1 hour, largely unattended

Undercook this souffle slightly so it remains moist in the middle and needs no sauce, then dust with confectioners' sugar. Or cook it until it's dry and serve it with Vanilla Custard Sauce (page 924), Whipped Cream (page 882), fruit puree (see page 923), or any light sauce.

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus 1 teaspoon for the dish
.5 cup sugar, plus more for the dish
1 cup milk
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped, or 1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 eggs, separated
Pinch salt

1) Use 1 teaspoon of the butter to grease a 2-quart souffle dish or other straight-sided deep baking dish. (If you want to make individual souffles, use a little more butter and grease four 1.5 to 2-cup ramekins.) Sprinkle the dish with sugar, invert it, and tap to remove excess sugar. Set aside and heat the oven to 350*F.
2) Warm the milk in a small saucepan over low heat with the remaining .33 cup sugar. In a second saucepan, heat the remaining 3 tablespoons butter over medium-low heat. When the foam begins to subside, stir in the flour. Turn the heat to low and cook, stirring almost constantly, until the flour-butter mixture darkens, about 3 minutes.
3) Stir in the milk, a little bit at a time, using a whisk. It will be quite thick; stir in the chocolate if you're using it and remove from the heat. Let cool for 5 minutes. Beat the egg yolks and stir them in. Add the vanilla if you're using it. (At this point, you may cool the mixture, cover it tightly, and refrigerate for a few hours.)
4) Beat the egg whites with the salt until very stiff but still glossy. Stir a good spoonful of them thoroughly into the sauce to lighten it, then fold in the remaining whites, using a rubber spatula or your hand. Transfer to the prepared souffle dish(es) and bake until the center barely jiggles and is set, or nearly so, 30 to 40 minutes (15 to 25 minutes for individual souffles). Serve immediately.

Okay... I had heard enough to know that some cooks hate to bake souffles. They are supposed to be extremely fickle and difficult to cook. I had just about no problems when I cooked them a few days ago. The hardest thing for me was beating the egg whites and making the whipped cream with just a wire whisk (no electric mixer for me). I developed my own technique for it (which worked in the end, so know that it's not impossible to do), and learned tonight at work that there is supposedly a much easier way to do it. I can't wait to try out that technique. But anyway, with all I had heard about souffles, I feel that they really shouldn't be intimidating at all. It's one of those things that makes me feel like "Hey, maybe I really can get good at this." Check it out:

Here's one of the four souffles that I made. The taste was spot on, and the texture was what I expected. I'll learn eventually to time it just right so the surface doesn't dry out enough to crack like that. I'll worry about the aesthetics next time.

Here's the whipped cream. Heavy whipping cream, sugar, and cinnamon. Not too sweet, and the cinnamon really adds a great flavor.

So if I can produce a chocolate souffle in my tiny little galley kitchen with the minimalist equipment that I have, then I really just can't wait to see what I might be able to do with good tools and good ingredients in a professional kitchen. I know it's not the tools that make the chef, but I still intend to try end find out what I could do with those professional tools (or even, you know, just some basic kitchen essentials). But hey, maybe it's good for me to learn the basics with really crappy tools, so I'm pleasantly surprised how easy it is later. Random interjection, I've mentioned it before, but I'll say it again: Linecook 415 is an awesome blog. I'm currently listening to their most recent Podcast and it's hilarious. I hope they put out a new one soon. Anyway, a note about the actual souffle recipe. I had four Pyrex dessert bowls placed in the middle of the oven inside a 9x13 Pyrex casserole dish for stability. My oven thermometer was reading ever so slightly above 350*F, and I set the kitchen timer for 50 minutes. Three times I opened the oven because there is no internal light (so some heat naturally escaped). At 50 minutes, the tops were drier than the ones we serve at the restaurant and slightly cracked. The interior was just about perfect though. So what the recipe says about 15 to 25 minutes per souffle (which would have put me at an hour 4o) is wrong. If you have a clear oven door window and an internal light, you'll be able to judge for yourself much better when they're done. And a note to those who might be intimidated by certain recipes: Just go for it. Worst case scenario, you really screw the pooch and burn down your house or something. But really, what are the odds? Anyway, this post is kind of all over the place; I started last night after I got off work at 12:30 this morning, and got more distracted continuing it now with the podcast on in the background. So I'll post the second recipe tomorrow with the pictures from the results. So you know, it's one of my own personal recipes (I'm sure the idea has been done before, but I like the way mine tasted so I wrote it down and called it my own). Perfect for breakfast in my opinion. Last words: Happiness begins in the kitchen. Be bold!

Cheers,

-Peter

How to Cook Everything was copywrited in 2008 by Doubly B Publishing Inc., and published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. in Hoboken, New Jersey. This representation of the text is intended for educational use only.

By the bye...

I'm on Twitter now. Figured it was time, but really seems pointless if you're not online 24/7. Anyway, @pmatarrese. Don't really have any profound thoughts yet, but there you are.

Cheers,
-Peter

"Weekend" Recipe 3/30/09 plus notes

First, the recipe:

Baked Macaroni and Cheese
Makes: 4 to 6 servings
Time: About 45 minutes

One of the most popular recipes in the original How to Cook Everything, which I attributed to too many people growing up with what the Canadians call "Kraft dinner." The real thing is rich, filling, delicious, and dead easy. You can change the type of cheese you use: Try blue cheese, goat cheese, smoked Gouda, or even mascarpone. Or mix in some crisp-cooked chunks of thick-cut bacon or pancetta, about .5 cup.

Salt
2.5 cups milk (low-fat is fine)
2 bay leaves
1 pound elbow, shell, ziti, or other cut pasta
4 tablespoons (.5 stick) butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1.5 cups grated cheese, like sharp cheddar or Emmental
.5 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Freshly ground black pepper
.5 cup or more bread crumbs, preferably fresh (page 876)

1) Heat the oven to 400*F. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it.
2) Heat the milk with the bay leaves in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. When small bubbles appear along the sides, about 5 minutes later, turn off the heat and let stand. Cook the pasta in the boiling water to the point where you would still think it needed another minute or two to become tender. Drain it, rinse it quickly to stop the cooking, and put it in a large bowl.
3) In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, melt 3 tablespoons of the butter; when it is foamy, add the flour and cook, stirring, until the mixture browns, about 5 minutes. Remove the bay leaves from the milk and add about .25 cup of the milk to the hot flour mixture, stirring with a wire whisk all the while. As soon as the mixture becomes smooth, add a little more milk, and continue to do so until all the milk is used up and the mixture is thick and smooth. Add the cheddar or Emmental and stir.
4) Pour the sauce over the pasta, toss in the Parmesan, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Use the remaining 1 tablespoon butter to grease a 9 x 13-inch or like-size baking pan and turn the pasta mixture into it. (You can make the dish to this point, cover, and refrigerate for up to a day; return to room temperature before proceeding.) Top liberally with bread crumbs and bake until bubbling and the crumbs turn brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Serve piping hot.

Now, a few things:
The recipe tasted good. Make sure you use the right amounts of the ingredients. I know that I skimped on the cheese (using Monterey Jack cheese, which seems somewhere between soft and semi-hard, not like sharp cheddar), and completely removed the Parmesan (didn't have any). Next time, I'll make the trip to the store. Mine came out kind of dry. As I was making the sauce, it looked good, but I could tell as I was pouring it that it needed more cheese. Oh well, there's always next time. Also, the timing for this must be an approximation for someone who knows the recipe. So prepare yourself whenever you're trying something new.

Next:
linecook415.blogspot.com is a very interesting blog. I heard about it from one of the chefs at work. It's a good blog, I wonder if she has other recommendations. Currently listening to his Podcast about culinary school. A lot of very good information. I am going to do more research about which culinary school I want to go to. It's like applying to college all over again. Still, I have a year and a half to change my mind with plenty of factors to influence me. Random best quote from the Podcast (be warned, I am not censoring the expletives: "That's fucked up... being bored in a kitchen. A restaurant kitchen. How does that happen? You have knives and fire! How the fuck are you bored?!" A brilliant and well-phrased thought.

Finally:
Where has this semester gone? This isn't food related, but rather life related. I have something like 5 and a half weeks of classes left. Then I'm a senior. In my senior year of college... that's surprising. I guess after 20 years of life (almost 21! A month and a half), one more 5 month period (one semester) doesn't seem like all that much. I wonder if this feeling gets exponentially stronger. I guess I'll find out when I'm older.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy reading my blog as much as I enjoy writing it. FYI, I hope at least one person has attempted or at least intends to try some of the recipes that I post. I haven't posted one yet that hasn't turned out extremely tasty. The "Olive Oil Salt Bread" which I simply call quickbread is painfully simple, quick, and delicious. Take the extra hour (should be even less time) before you eat dinner to prep and bake some fresh rolls (just divide the dough in balls and put them on a baking sheet). You will not regret it.

Cheers,
-Peter

P.S. Of course, I need to say...

How to Cook Everything was copywrited in 2008 by Doubly B Publishing Inc., and published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. in Hoboken, New Jersey. This representation of the text is intended for educational use only.

Weekend Recipe 3/29/09

So amid my schoolwork I still like to find time to cook. The quick recipes that I have provide nice little study breaks or a good way to relax after a long day at the library. This recipe for Popovers comes from How To Cook Everything, and is extremely easy. I've made it twice so far, the second batch turning out much better than the first. Let me just say... GREASE THE PAN!!! If you don't, you'll end up crushing the popovers as you attempt to pull them out of the muffin tin. Greasing it well allows you to simply run a butter knife around the sides to make sure they are loose and pop them right out, maintaining the desired air pocket. Beyond being extremely easy to make, the taste and texture are incredible. Think of the texture of a crispy eclair on the outside and a light bread pudding on the inside. The taste is clean enough, and the mix receptive enough, that you can make these savory or sweet. My last batch had cinnamon folded into it, which made it more of a breakfast companion. An idea that my housemate Kevin brought up that I'm very interested to try is this: Filling the air pockets. The possibilities are endless! They could be homemade cream puffs, or muffin shaped eclairs. But why stop there? Make a homemade headcheese of sorts (just use any cut of meat precooked and minced small, add veggies and spices to unflavored gelatin and chill into a loaf to yield something slicable), and allow it to set within the air pockets. It's like a "soup" sandwich (assuming the gelatin takes to the flavors of the meat, veggies, and spices, I imagine it would taste something like a solidified stock). Hmmmm, I may just have to see if this works for myself. The textures of the final product I'm sure would weird out a lot of people, but then again, it could be the next big thing. "Don't knock it 'til you try it" is my food philosophy (that's how I came to like sea urchin sushi). After a looooong digression here is the recipe:

Popovers
Makes: 12 popovers
Time: About 45 minutes

Popovers are best made at the last minute, but they're good left over as well. I think they go incredibly well with scrambled eggs, though the classic accompaniment is Prime Rib Roast (page 734).

1 tablespoon melted butter or neutral oil, like grapeseed or corn, plus some for the muffin tin
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon sugar
.5 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour

1) Heat the oven to 425*F. [N.B. from me - Get an oven thermometer if your oven does not have a digital read; my first batch cooked way too hot when I trusted the temperatures on the dial] Grease a 12-cup muffin tin or a popover tin and put it in the oven while you make the batter.
2) Beat together the eggs, milk, butter or oil, sugar, and salt. Beat in the flour a little bit at a time; the mixture should be smooth. Fill the muffin tins at least halfway (if your tin is large, this might make fewer than 12 popovers). Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350*F and continue baking for 15 minutes more, or until the popovers are puffed and browned (do not check the popovers until they have baked for a total of 30 minutes [N.B. from me - depending on the hotspots in your oven, or the fickleness of it, you'll be able to see if they are ready before 30 minutes]). Remove from the pan immediately and serve hot.

How to Cook Everything was copywrited in 2008 by Doubly B Publishing Inc., and published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. in Hoboken, New Jersey. This representation of the text is intended for educational use only.

Food Day!

So today at job training, all of the front-of-the-house employees were given a lecture of sorts on every item on our lunch and dinner menu. It was a lecture in the sense that it was very informative, but also so much more than a lecture in the sense that we got to taste a LOT of the food. Everything from the salads to the fish to the meats, and especially the pizzas, has a story. There are between 60-70 dishes on the menu, but one has to realize that within these dishes are literally hundreds of recipes. Where the master recipe for a soup might call for a chicken broth, the kitchen team at Bottega Louie has a specific recipe for making that broth. Within that broth, a very specific type of chicken is used (the Jidori varietal, look it up), which is raised locally (that is to say, within 100 miles). But even a good recipe can be ruined by poor quality ingredients. Not at Bottega Louie. Who else has fishmongers in Italy with the ability to get us the catch off of day boats within 48 hours? Who else has access to the artisan-grown vegetables from the McGrath Farm in Valencia, CA which produces only one acre of a certain product (note* "any one of its products;" they grow many types of vegetables on their 40 acres, but reserve only 1 acre per varietal)? Hearing about all the recipes and the ingredients that go into those recipes today makes me appreciate that this whole operation has really been in development for three years. That time has not been wasted either. The close relationships our upper management team have developed with the various growers, vendors, mongers, etc. is a testament to the company's motto: The fanatical pursuit of excellence. Everything, I mean EVERYthing that I tasted today is as close to perfection in the various types of dishes that I've had. The pizza, the pasta, the vegetables, the bread, everything reflects the care and expertise that has gone into trimming 40 types of mozzarella down to the one we use for the pizza (which is different from the one we use on the caprese salad), or the over 2,000 wines down to the 50 that are on our list. Some might believe that it's a waste to spend so much time and money on this sort of development, but I see it differently. Everyone will be able to appreciate just how amazing the food tastes on their very first time in the restaurant. I believe the sheer quality of the food is enough to bring people back a second and third time. It is those subsequent visits when they will begin to grasp just how vast the scope of our restaurant is (when they find out that we only use USDA Natural Prime beef, the top 3% of all beef raised in America). That realization when coupled with the revolutionary service we have been trained in is what will turn a casual diner into a full subscriber to the brand that is Bottega Louie. Not to sound too much like an ad for my employer (too late), but I would not have posted this if I didn't truly believe it. We're doing something different here. Something that I've never experience myself in any restaurant that I've been to. And if I, someone interested in food but just barely beginning to peek into the world of the professional food industry, can appreciate the path B.L. is looking to forge, I'm excited to see the reception and perception of Bottega Louie by the food connoisseurs from Los Angeles and elsewhere. Anyway, time for dinner. I think I'll eat some more watermelon soup.
Cheers,
-Peter